


The Start of a Long Summer

by Redrikki



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-05 11:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12188934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: Azula steps through a wardrobe to find a kidnapping faun and a wintry kingdom ripe for regime change.





	The Start of a Long Summer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scribblemyname](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/gifts).



> Thanks to [attackfish](http://archiveofourown.org/users/attackfish/pseuds/attackfish) for the beta.

The air grew colder as Azula pushed further into the wardrobe. Another girl might have turned back, but not her. This was hide-and-go-seek and she was playing to win. She shoved past a row of robes, then another, and another. Hands out stretched before her, she reached for the back of the wardrobe, but it never came. Just how big was it? No matter. Azula wasn’t going to lose to stupid Zuko just because her hiding place was eerily cold and bigger than it should be.

Something crunched under her feet like shells on a beach, but the powdery stuff was cold and melted under her touch. Soft fabric gave way to rough bark, and Azula stepped free of the clothes into a nighttime forest. Soft white flakes drifted down, coating the ground and melting in her hair. She caught some in her hand and then on her tongue before she realized what it was. “It’s snow!” Had she somehow been transported to the South Pole?”

Wherever she was, it was freezing. Teeth chattering, Azula reached back into the wardrobe and pulled on one of the warmer-looking robes. There was a light in the distance. She could stand there shivering, or she could see what it was. Azula set off quickly, her too-large robe flapping around her.

It was a lamppost. “That’s all?” She’d walked all the way out here. Her ears were numb. And _this_ was her prize? Azula kicked the base and eyed the trees. Maybe they were dry enough to burn. 

Approaching footsteps crunched on the snow. Azula took a fighting stance, ready to show what a Fire Princess could do. She half-expected a polar bear-dog or a Water Tribe savage, but the creature who stepped out of the trees was even stranger. He was barely taller than Azula herself, with short horns poking out of his dark curls. From the waist up, he had the body of a man, but his legs were like a cat-deer’s with sleek, dark fur and hooves. His only clothing was a red scarf and his skin was rather reddish too. In one hand he held a snow-covered umbrella and a stack of brown wrapped packages in the other.

Spotting Azula, he started so badly he dropped them all. “Goodness gracious me!”

Azula curled her lip as she watched him scramble for his fallen packages. Pathetic. She lowered her hands. How had she ever thought such a creature could be a threat?

Having collected his packages, the man-creature offered her short bow. “Good evening, good evening.” 

“What are you supposed to be?”

He blinked, clearly taken aback. “Why, I’m a faun,” he said. His expression turned calculating, almost hungry. “And yourself?” He took a half-step towards her. “I don’t want to be inquisitive, but would I be right in thinking that you are—” he licked his lips— “a Daughter of Eve?”

“I am Azula, daughter of Fire Prince Ozai and the Lady Ursa,” she said, drawing herself up to glare down her nose at this ignorant faun peasant.

“But you are —forgive me— you are what they call a girl. That is to say, a human?”

It was a struggle not to roll her eyes. “Of course I am.” What else would she be?”

“To be sure, to be sure,” he said. “How stupid of me! But I’ve never seen a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve before. I am delighted. That is to say—” Something dark flitted across his face and then he smiled brightly. “Delighted, delighted. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tumnus.”

Mom was always saying that Azula should be more polite to commoners, but she didn’t particularly see why. She was a princess. People could hate her all they liked, but they still had to do what she said. But Tumnus didn’t. Azula plastered on a polite smile. “Pleased to meet you,” she said sweetly. “Tell me, where are we?”

“This is the land of Narnia,” Tumnus said, “where we are now; all that lies between the lamppost and the great castle of Cair Paravel on the eastern sea. And you— have you come from the wild woods to the west?”

Azula shook her head. “I came from the Fire Nation.” The snow had soaked into her shoes, turning her feet numb. She stomped them, trying to restore feeling. “It’s _warm_ there.”

Tumnus made sympathetic noises. “Meanwhile, it is always cold in Narnia, and we shall both catch our death if we stand out in it much longer. Oh Azula, Daughter of Eve from the land of eternal summer, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?”

She looked back over her shoulder, considering. Azula had been in this Narnia place for a good twenty minutes now. It would probably be another hour before Zuko gave up looking and went crying to Mom. There was no point in spending it shivering in the snow. “Very well.”

And, with that, he took her by the arm and lead her to his home. The faun lived inside a cave like some Earth Kingdom peasant. No. Worse. _They_ lived in proper homes. This place as positively barbaric with just a rug over an earthen floor. There was a scattering of rather plain furniture and a sort of family shrine hung over the fireplace. Azula claimed the nicer of the two chairs as her due while Tumnus bustled about preparing the tea things. If she was going to spend the next hour or so in this wretched hovel, she was going to make herself comfortable. She pointed her soaked feet towards the fire. 

“Now, Daughter of Eve—” Tumnus set the heavily-laden tea tray down on the table—“tea.”

It was like no tea she had ever had. Uncle would have had words about the milky, too-sweet stuff. None of them would have been ‘tea.’ Azula only drank it to help her choke down all the toast Tumnus insisted on feeding her. Worse yet, the stupid faun would not shut up. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he’d told some interesting stories, but instead he went on and on about dancing trees and men turning rivers into wine. The more he talked, the harder it was for Azula to remember why she was bothering to be polite.

In the middle of some rambling tale about lions, Azula yawned rather pointedly. “Oh, look at the time,” she said, although there was no clock in sight. “I really should be getting back.” She’d been sitting here long enough for her feet to dry. Zuko had to have given up by now. 

“Oh!” Tumnus gaped at her. “It’s no good _now_.” His face crumpled and his brown eyes filled with tears.

Azula lept to her feet. “What’s the matter with you?” She couldn’t abide crying. Fire princesses weren’t allowed to cry, so why should fauns? “Stop that at once,” she demanded, but Tumnus only sobbed harder. “Stop it!” She gave him sharp slap.

That seemed to snap him out of it, more or less. Tears still leaked from his eyes, but at least he was looking at her now. “I’m s-s-sorry,” he blubbered. “I am a bad, bad faun.”

What a drama queen. “Yes, I’m sure you’re terrible.” Azula rolled her eyes. “Just look at what you did to the tea.” All this because she wanted to go home? This was the last time she bothered being polite to anyone.

“You don’t understand.” Tumnus sniffle and made an attempt to pull himself together. “I’m in the pay of the White Witch.”

“Who is the White Witch?”

“Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter.”

Always winter? Like the Poles? This White Witch must be some sort of evil water bender. Azula narrowed her eyes. “What does she pay _you_ for?” It certainly wasn’t for tea or conversation. 

Tumnus scrubbed at his face with napkin. “That’s the worst of it,” he said with a deep groan. “I’m a kidnapper for her.”

“What?” The Fire Nation wasn’t at war with this wretched country, but, if he was saying what she thought he was saying, they soon would be. She would lead an army through the wardrobe and burn it to the ground. “What are you saying?” Her voice was level, but her hands curled into fists and the fire roared in the hearth, hot enough to scorch the bottom of the mantle. 

Glancing nervously from the fireplace to Azula’s face, Tumnus shrank back in his chair. “I had orders from the White Witch that if I ever saw a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve, I was to catch them and hand them over to her.”

“You were going to hand _me_ over to her.” She was shaking. Was it with anger or with fear? It didn’t matter. Azula refused to give in to either. She wasn’t pathetic like Zuko. She was in control. Like Dad. “What does she want humans for?” 

“Why, only a Human can rule Narnia. The White Witch likes us to believe she is, but there isn’t a real drop of Human blood in her veins. She’s a usurper!” Tumnus made as if to spit on the floor, then thought better of spoiling his rug. He shook his head. “You have a better claim to the throne than she does.”

Azula’s eyes widened. “I could be queen?” At home, there was little chance of that. Not with Grandfather, Uncle and Cousin LuTen in the way, not to mention Dad and Zuko. Here, all she had to do was get rid of one water bender. How hard could that be?

“Oh, but you must go!” Tumnus sprang to his feet and seized her arm. “She’ll kill you if you stay! She’ll kill us both!”

She shook him off with a contemptuous flick. “No—” Azula called a flame to her hand— “she won’t.”

The faun backed away, eyes wide with terror. 

“Smile, Tumnus. I’m going to give you summer.”


End file.
